Reviews - Dörren | The StoryGraph

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I started reading this because I am going to Budapest soon and wanted to read some Hungarian literature. Since I’m not reading straight white men this year (and possibly longer), there really aren’t very many books/authors left that are translated into a language I speak.

While Magda Szabó certainly knows how to construct a good sentence, I really struggled with the characters of this book. There is no real plot (as far as I can tell at 25%), so the characters are kind of key. And I really can’t stand them.

The narrator is judgy and condescending which is incredibly annoying. The housekeeper could have been an eccentric old lady with a mysterious backstory, buuut she’s really just manipulative and abusive. Emotionally abusive towards her employers, and physically abusive towards their dog. Especially the animal abuse is romanticised and excused a lot and written in a very casual way. The narrator repeatedly states that the housekeeper has such a close bond with the animal and how she is jealous that the dog loves her housekeeper so much more than her. Glossing over the fact that she beats the animal into submission.

The blurb also makes it sound like the book is about an odd friendship between a cantankerous housekeeper and her upper class employer, but so far I can only see dysfunctional acquaintances at best. According to the narrator over a decade has passed within the storyline and they still treat each other with ignorance, condescension and manipulation. I haven’t got the patience nor the will to read any further and see if it gets any better.

Content Warnings

andy_acid's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

While the book is a fine specimen of a literary thriller, Emerence's character felt achingly archetypical and almost non-human, making it difficult to engage with her development of a relationship with the protagonist. The use of first person pov exacerbated this issue, as it highlighted the disconnect, unreliability and ultimately didn’t suit the narrative well.